The Wright Stuff
DAVID McCULLOUGH, Host : Good evening and welcome to The American Experience .
大卫·麦卡洛（主持人）：晚上好，欢迎来到“美国经验”。
I'm David McCullough.
我是大卫·麦卡洛。
To take off into the sky, to soar through the air like a bird, bank and turn and see all the world below-- to fly, to fly--it was the oldest of dreams, and it had baffled the most inventive of minds, from Leonard da Vinci to Thomas Edison.
飞向天空，像鸟儿一样在空中翱翔，倾斜、转弯，看看下面的世界——飞翔，飞翔——这是最古老的梦想，它也困扰着最有创造力的人，从伦纳德·达·芬奇到托马斯·爱迪生。
And then one day it happened.
然后有一天，事情发生了。
Early in the new twentieth century at a remote spot on the outer coast of North Carolina, two young unknown Americans-- brothers from Dayton, Ohio-- succeeded as no human beings ever had.
二十世纪初，在北卡罗来纳州外海岸的一个偏远地区，来自俄亥俄州代顿的两个年轻的无名美国人兄弟取得了前所未有的成功。
First one, then the other took off and landed in a flying machine-- wings, propeller, gasoline engine, all of their own design.
第一个，然后另一个乘坐飞行器起飞并降落——机翼、螺旋桨、汽油发动机，全都是他们自己设计的。
It was astounding, and though the world was slow to accept what they'd done as anything more than a stunt, the world was not to be the same again.
这是令人震惊的，尽管世界慢慢地接受了他们所做的一切不仅仅是一个噱头，但世界不会再像以前一样了。
If ever there was a turning point in history, it was this, and they are the story tonight, the Wright Brothers.
如果历史上有过一个转折点的话，那就是这个，而他们就是今晚的故事，莱特兄弟。
At home in Dayton, Wilbur and Orville Wright ran a bicycle shop.
威尔伯·莱特 (Wilbur Wright) 和奥维尔·莱特 (Orville Wright) 在代顿的家中经营一家自行车店。
Both bachelors, they lived with their minister father in a plain frame house no different from any other on most any street anywhere in middle America.
他们都是单身汉，和他们的牧师父亲住在一栋朴素的框架房子里，与美国中部任何街道上的任何其他房子没有什么不同。
They themselves, with their business suits and derby hats, looked like the perfect pair of small town entrepreneurs-- nothing out of the ordinary-- all of which greatly endeared them to the public.
他们本人穿着西装，戴着圆顶礼帽，看起来就像一对完美的小镇企业家——没有什么不同寻常的——所有这些都让他们深受公众的喜爱。
Wasn't it wonderful what good old down-to-earth Yankee ingenuity could accomplish?
北方佬脚踏实地的聪明才智能够实现这样的成就，这不是很奇妙吗？
Imagine, a couple of hometown bicycle mechanics.
想象一下，一对家乡的自行车修理工。
In fact, Wilbur and Orville Wright, while self-taught, were exceedingly serious aeronautical engineers-- painstaking, resourceful, highly creative, truly brilliant and brave, which makes their story all the more interesting.
事实上，威尔伯·赖特和奥维尔·赖特虽然自学成才，但都是极其认真的航空工程师——勤奋、足智多谋、极富创造力、真正才华横溢、勇敢，这使得他们的故事更加有趣。
Until his death in 1948, Orville Wright vacationed every summer on his island in Georgian Bay, Canada.
奥维尔·赖特 (Orville Wright) 每年夏天都会到加拿大乔治亚湾的小岛上度假，直至 1948 年去世。
WILKINSON WRIGHT, Grand-nephew : And there's Uncle Orv driving the boat.
威尔金森·赖特（侄孙）： 奥夫叔叔正在开船。
He drove everything fast.
他开得很快。
Oh, now that's the famous hat.
哦，这就是著名的帽子。
Mosquitoes got in and bit his bald head, so he put pieces of mosquito netting in those holes.
蚊子钻进去咬了他的光头，所以他在那些洞里塞了几片蚊帐。
I'm the one in the middle, and I must have been ten years old then.
我就是中间的那个，那时我一定十岁了。
Uncle Orv was a born engineer.
奥尔夫叔叔是一位天生的工程师。
He loved mechanical things.
他喜欢机械的东西。
He loved a problem.
他喜欢一个问题。
Orville outlived his older brother Wilbur by more than thirty years.
奥维尔比他的哥哥威尔伯多活了三十多岁。
If Orville was the born engineer, Wilbur was the visionary.
如果说奥维尔是天生的工程师，那么威尔伯就是一位有远见的人。
IVONETTE WRIGHT-MILLER, Niece : They weren't at all alike.
伊沃内特·赖特·米勒（侄女）：他们一点都不像。
Wilbur was a thoughtful man, and he would hardly say anything -- he'd be thinking.
威尔伯是一个深思熟虑的人，他几乎不会说什么——他会思考。
Wilbur's need to make his mark led these down-to-earth brothers to the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk to tackle the problem of flight.
威尔伯需要留下自己的印记，这促使这些脚踏实地的兄弟来到小鹰沙丘解决飞行问题。
Together, they created a deceptively simple glider, and transformed it into one of the most spectacular achievements of the twentieth century.
他们共同创造了一种看似简单的滑翔机，并将其转变为二十世纪最引人注目的成就之一。
TOM CROUCH, National Air and Space Museum : You have all of these well-educated, well-supported people trying to invent the airplane, and none of them invent the airplane.
汤姆·克劳奇，国家航空航天博物馆：所有这些受过良好教育、得到良好支持的人都试图发明飞机，但他们都没有发明飞机。
Wilbur and Orville Wright invent the airplane-- these two fellows who seem like the most ordinary people in the world, and yet who have these extraordinary talents bottled up inside them that are going to be played out during the course of this story.
威尔伯和奥维尔·赖特发明了飞机——这两个家伙看起来是世界上最普通的人，但他们内心却蕴藏着非凡的才能，这些才能将在这个故事的过程中得到体现。
But while their combined talents made it possible for the Wright brothers to produce the airplane, their mistrust of others almost cost them the credit for it.
尽管莱特兄弟的综合才能使他们能够制造出飞机，但他们对他人的不信任几乎让他们失去了这架飞机的声誉。
The rest is history.
剩下的就是历史了。
We are in an uproar getting Brother Will off.
我们正忙着把威尔弟兄赶走。
The trip will do him good.
这次旅行对他有好处。
I never did hear of such an out-of-the-way-place as Kitty Hawk.
我从来没有听说过像基蒂霍克这样偏僻的地方。
Early that fall, Wilbur Wright set out for Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
那年秋初，威尔伯·赖特 (Wilbur Wright) 出发前往北卡罗来纳州的基蒂霍克 (Kitty Hawk)。
Packed in a crate were the makings of a glider he hoped would unlock the mystery of flight, a rather unlikely ambition for a bicycle maker from Dayton, Ohio.
板条箱里装着滑翔机的材料，他希望能够解开飞行之谜，这对于俄亥俄州代顿的自行车制造商来说是一个不太可能实现的雄心壮志。
It is my belief that flight is possible, and while I am taking up the investigation for pleasure rather than profit, I think there is a slight possibility of achieving fame and fortune from it.
我相信逃亡是可能的，虽然我从事这项调查是为了乐趣而不是为了利益，但我认为从中获得名誉和财富的可能性微乎其微。
ROBERT WOHL, Historian : Wilbur Wright, to me, as he had emerged from the textbooks' accounts, was always a boring figure, yet as I read his letters, I began to realize that we're dealing here with a man who was extraordinarily complex, very funny at times, extremely private and, above all-- what fascinates me-- unpredictable.
罗伯特·沃尔，历史学家：威尔伯·赖特，对我来说，正如他从教科书的记载中出现的那样，一直是一个无聊的人物，但当我读到他的信时，我开始意识到，我们在这里面对的是一个极其复杂、有时非常有趣、极其私密的人，而且最重要的是——让我着迷的是——不可预测。
At the time of Wilbur's first trip to Kitty Hawk, he was thirty-three years old.
威尔伯第一次前往小鹰镇时，他已经三十三岁了。
He and his brother Orville were still living at home in the house known as Seven Hawthorne Street.
他和他的兄弟奥维尔仍然住在霍桑街七号的家里。
The early twentieth century was an age of very close families, you know, that notion of the fortress family, and giving dad a place to come home to for protection after the battles of the day, but the Wright family really went some distance beyond that.
二十世纪初是一个家庭关系非常密切的时代，你知道，堡垒家庭的概念，并在当天的战斗后给父亲一个回家的地方以寻求保护，但赖特家族确实远远超出了这一点。
Milton Wright was a righteous and controversial bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.
米尔顿·赖特（Milton Wright）是基督联合弟兄会的一位正义且有争议的主教。
Though he was on the road for months at a time, he was always a strong presence at home.
尽管他一次要出差几个月，但在家里他总是有很强的影响力。
I want you and the boys to be real good while I'm away.
我希望我不在的时候你和孩子们都表现得很好。
Make business first, pleasure afterward, and that guarded.
先做生意，后享乐，并且要谨慎。
He didn't see anything but black and white.
除了黑与白，他什么也看不见。
He was_ and he was confident that he could tell the difference between the two.
他是_并且他有信心能够区分两者之间的区别。
There was nothing gray to the bishop.
对于主教来说，没有什么是灰色的。
Susan Wright was the perfect wife for Milton.
苏珊赖特是米尔顿的完美妻子。
College-educated, and the devoted mother of five, she was mechanically gifted, and handled all the repairs around the house.
她受过大学教育，是五个孩子的忠实母亲，具有机械天赋，负责房屋周围的所有维修工作。
Wilbur, the middle child, was born in 1867.
威尔伯 (Wilbur) 出生于 1867 年，是老二。
His head was so big that it was years before Susan could find a hat that would fit him.
他的头太大了，苏珊花了很多年才找到一顶适合他的帽子。
He was a quiet child, but extremely self-confident.
他是一个安静的孩子，但非常自信。
Once, when a teacher scolded him for making a mistake on a math problem, he went up after class and proved to her that he was right.
有一次，当老师责骂他做错一道数学题时，他下课后站起来，向老师证明他是对的。
Orville, four years younger than Wilbur, was the outgoing, happy one.
奥维尔比威尔伯小四岁，性格外向、快乐。
The other day I took a machine can, filled it with water.
有一天，我拿了一个机器罐，装满了水。
Then I put it on the stove, and I waited a little while, and the water came squirting out of the top about a foot.
然后我把它放在炉子上，等了一会儿，水从顶部喷了出来，大约一英尺。
Well, we've all seen them-- a kid who's just like an explosion.
嗯，我们都见过他们——一个像爆炸一样的孩子。
You know, he's always doing something, he's always into something, again fiddling around with science experiments in his mother's kitchen.
你知道，他总是在做某事，他总是对某事感兴趣，再次在他母亲的厨房里摆弄科学实验。
Milton and Susan were unusually progressive parents and even encouraged their children to play hooky from school occasionally so they could pursue their interests independently-- hardly the norm in Dayton, Ohio in the late nineteenth century.
米尔顿和苏珊是异常进步的父母，甚至鼓励孩子偶尔逃学，这样他们就可以独立追求自己的兴趣——这在十九世纪末的俄亥俄州代顿市并不常见。
A fast-growing industrial center, Dayton was the very definition of an average American town, and in spite of his upbringing, Wilbur, at age eighteen, had fairly average aspirations.
代顿是一个快速发展的工业中心，是美国城镇的典型代表，尽管威尔伯十八岁，他的成长经历却相当普通。
He hoped to attend Yale and become a minister.
他希望进入耶鲁大学并成为一名牧师。
Then an incident radically shifted the direction of his life.
后来发生的一件事彻底改变了他的人生方向。
He and a group of friends were playing ''shinney,'' which is sort of a street version of hockey, and Wilbur got hit in the mouth with a_ with a hockey stick, and knocked all of his front teeth out, and he was a_ he was a long time really recovering from that accident.
他和一群朋友正在玩“辛尼”，这是一种街头版的曲棍球，威尔伯被一根曲棍球棒击中了嘴，把他所有的门牙都打掉了，他花了很长时间才从那次事故中恢复过来。
JOHN GILLIKIN, National Park Service : He goes from being a healthy young man-- handsome, fine future all stretched out in front of him-- to what was basically an invalid, ashamed of the way he looked, no path.
约翰·吉利金，国家公园管理局：他从一个健康的年轻人——英俊、美好的未来都在他面前展开——变成了一个基本上是一个病人，对自己的外表感到羞愧，没有出路。
This is a time when he's in his room, knowing that the life he planned for himself is never going to happen.
这是他在自己房间里的时候，知道他为自己计划的生活永远不会发生。
Though he recovered physically, Wilbur was suffering from a serious depression.
尽管威尔伯的身体康复了，但他却患有严重的抑郁症。
At the same time, his mother was very ill and required constant care.
与此同时，他的母亲病重，需要不断的照顾。
He was so kind to her.
他对她太好了。
during the later part of her illness_ she had tuberculosis, and he carried her upstairs to bed every night, and did everything for her.
在她患病的后期，她患有肺结核，他每天晚上都抱着她上楼睡觉，为她做一切。
Wilbur spent three years caring for his dying mother, finding his only escape in his parents' extensive library.
威尔伯花了三年时间照顾他垂死的母亲，在父母丰富的图书馆中找到了唯一的逃避。
Eventually, his older brother inquired, ''What does Will do?
最后，他的哥哥问道：“威尔是做什么的？”
Is he still cook and chambermaid?'' It was Orville who came to Wilbur's rescue.
他还是厨师和女服务员吗？”是奥维尔来拯救威尔伯的。
After high school, he started a printing business, publishing The West Side News.
高中毕业后，他开始从事印刷业务，出版《西区新闻》。
When Orville convinced Wilbur to join him, he succeeded in getting his older brother out of the house and out of his depression.
当奥维尔说服威尔伯加入他时，他成功地让他的哥哥走出了家门，摆脱了抑郁。
One of the ways that Orville differed most from_ from Wilbur was that Orville was always very optimistic.
奥维尔与威尔伯最不同的地方之一是奥维尔总是非常乐观。
He was always willing to press ahead.
他总是愿意勇往直前。
Orville was the most easily approached of the two_ fun-loving.
奥维尔是两人中最容易接近的一个——爱开玩笑。
He was a dude as far as clothes are concerned.
就衣服而言，他是个花花公子。
He just had everything just perfect.
他的一切都很完美。
Wilbur and Orville's younger sister Katharine had graduated from Oberlin College, and was now running the household.
威尔伯和奥维尔的妹妹凯瑟琳毕业于欧柏林学院，现在正在主持家庭。
Though Wilbur, Orville and Katharine had an active social life, none of them seemed interested in marriage.
尽管威尔伯、奥维尔和凯瑟琳的社交生活很活跃，但他们似乎都对婚姻不感兴趣。
They preferred and enjoyed each other's company.
他们更喜欢并享受彼此的陪伴。
In fact, Wilbur and Orville, different in so many ways, were beginning to forge one of the most successful creative alliances in history.
事实上，威尔伯和奥维尔在很多方面都有所不同，但他们正开始建立历史上最成功的创意联盟之一。
In 1892, the bicycle was a national craze.
1892年，自行车风靡全国。
It was called ''the greatest invention of the nineteenth century.'' Orville liked to race, and fancied himself a ''scorcher.'' Wilbur preferred long, slow rides in the country.
它被称为“十九世纪最伟大的发明”。奥维尔喜欢比赛，并自诩为“炙手可热的人”。威尔伯更喜欢在乡村长途缓慢地骑行。
Bored with the printing business, Wilbur, now twenty-five, and Orville, twenty-one, decided to open up a bicycle shop.
现年二十五岁的威尔伯和二十一岁的奥维尔厌倦了印刷业，决定开一家自行车店。
Soon they were hand crafting their own, honing their innate engineering skills on this cutting-edge technology.
很快，他们就开始手工制作自己的作品，在这种尖端技术上磨练自己与生俱来的工程技能。
But by the time he turned thirty, Wilbur was restless.
但到了三十岁的时候，威尔伯却焦躁不安。
In a letter, he confessed, ''The boys of the Wright family are all lacking in determination and push.
他在一封信中承认，“莱特家族的孩子们都缺乏决心和进取心。
None of us has as yet made particular use of the talent in which he excels other men.''
我们还没有人特别利用过他超越其他人的才能。”
Then one morning, Wilbur sat down at the desk in the front parlor of Seven Hawthorne Street, and composed a letter to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
一天早上，威尔伯坐在霍桑街七号前厅的办公桌前，写了一封给史密森学会秘书的信。
I believe that simple flight at least is possible to man.
我相信简单的飞行至少对人类来说是可能的。
I am an enthusiast but not a crank.
我是一个爱好者，但不是一个怪人。
I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then, if possible, add my bit.
我希望利用所有已知的信息，然后，如果可能的话，添加我的一点。
Like other Americans at the time, Wilbur had been following accounts of an aviation experimenters around the world.
和当时的其他美国人一样，威尔伯一直在关注世界各地航空实验者的报道。
JOSEPH CORN, Historian : Americans were so pro-technology, and it was an inventive age.
历史学家约瑟夫·科恩（JOSEPH CORN）：美国人非常支持技术，那是一个充满创造力的时代。
All kinds of new patents, new machines, new devices from galoshes to mass-produced nails and bicycles were coming down the pike, and so there was a widespread expectation that, ''Well, yes, automobiles are here, electric trolleys are here.
各种各样的新专利、新机器、新装置，从胶鞋到批量生产的钉子和自行车，纷纷涌现，因此人们普遍期望，“嗯，是的，汽车在这里，电动手推车在这里。”
Airplanes must be next.''
飞机一定是下一个。”
One of the most prominent names in aviation at the time was the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Samuel Langley.
当时航空界最著名的人物之一是史密森学会秘书塞缪尔·兰利。
Using government funds, he had been experimenting with large unmanned model airplanes powered by steam and gasoline engines.
他利用政府资金，一直在试验由蒸汽和汽油发动机驱动的大型无人驾驶模型飞机。
In Germany, engineer Otto Lillienthal made over two thousand glides from a huge earth mound outside Berlin.
在德国，工程师奥托·李林塔尔 (Otto Lillienthal) 从柏林郊外的一个巨大土堆上进行了两千多次滑翔。
One day in 1896, his hang glider stalled, falling fifty feet to the ground.
1896 年的一天，他的悬挂式滑翔机失速，坠落到 50 英尺高的地面上。
He was killed in the crash.
他在事故中丧生。
On his gravestone are his words, ''Sacrifices Must Be Made.''
他的墓碑上刻着他的话：“必须做出牺牲。”
Wilbur and Orville read about Langley, Lillienthal and others in the material they received from the Smithsonian.
威尔伯和奥维尔从史密森学会收到的材料中了解到兰利、李林塔尔和其他人的情况。
As the Wright brothers looked at the problem, they thought they could divide it into three pieces.
当莱特兄弟研究这个问题时，他们认为可以将其分为三部分。
There was_ you had to be able to build wings that would lift your weight off the ground and the weight of the machine, you had to have a power plant that would propel it through the air, and you had to have a way to control the machine once it was in the air.
你必须能够建造机翼，将你的重量和机器的重量抬离地面，你必须有一个动力装置来推动它在空中飞行，你必须有一种方法来控制机器，一旦它在空中。
Control was the most difficult piece of the puzzle.
控制是这个难题中最困难的部分。
Lillienthal had tried to maneuver his glider by shifting his body weight, but died doing it.
李林塔尔曾试图通过改变体重来操纵他的滑翔机，但最终死了。
Others had designed machines with an upward-angled wing, believing that was the key to control.
其他人设计了带有向上倾斜机翼的机器，认为这是控制的关键。
Because the brothers were bicycle makers, they looked at the problem differently.
因为兄弟俩都是自行车制造商，所以他们对问题的看法不同。
Knowing how to ride a bicycle requires very good balance-- you become one with the machine-- and the Wrights realized that one of the secrets, one of the things that had to be solved to fly was to maintain balance and control in the air.
知道如何骑自行车需要非常好的平衡能力——你与机器合而为一——莱特兄弟意识到，飞行的秘密之一、必须解决的问题之一就是在空中保持平衡和控制。
Wilbur began watching birds in flight, noticing how they banked and turned.
威尔伯开始观察飞行中的鸟类，注意它们如何倾斜和转弯。
He had an idea that the secret of their control lay in the way they twisted their wing tips.
他认为它们控制的秘密在于它们扭转翼尖的方式。
One day at the bike shop, Wilbur began twisting an inner tube box.
有一天，威尔伯在自行车店开始扭转一个内胎盒。
It gave him an idea about how to achieve the control he wanted.
这让他知道如何实现他想要的控制。
Wilbur and Orville built a box kite and braced the wings with wires in such a way that they could be twisted in opposite directions to make the kite bank and turn.
威尔伯和奥维尔制作了一只箱形风筝，并用金属丝支撑翅膀，这样它们就可以向相反的方向扭转，使风筝倾斜和转动。
They called the principle ''wing warping,'' and it was a revolutionary breakthrough.
他们将这一原理称为“机翼翘曲”，这是一个革命性的突破。
In an empty field in Dayton, Wilbur tested his new design.
在代顿的一块空地上，威尔伯测试了他的新设计。
PETER JAKAB, National Air and Space Museum : There were some_ a group of schoolboys on the field where he was testing it, and they were kind of amazed that he could sort of dart down with the kite and then bring it back up again and_ and control it so well.
彼得·雅卡布，国家航空航天博物馆：他正在测试风筝的场地上有一群男生，他们有点惊讶他可以带着风筝飞翔下来，然后再把它带回来，并控制得如此之好。
And it seemed promising_ a promising system, so the Wrights decided to go ahead and build a full-size piloted version of this kite in 1900.
它看起来很有前途，是一个很有前景的系统，因此莱特兄弟决定在 1900 年继续建造这种风筝的全尺寸试点版本。
Eager for feedback, Wilbur wrote to the man considered an international authority on aviation, Octave Chanute, and described in detail his ground-breaking ideas.
威尔伯渴望得到反馈，于是写信给被认为是国际航空权威的奥克塔夫·查努特 (Octave Chanute)，并详细描述了他的开创性想法。
For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man.
多年来，我一直坚信人类可以飞行。
My observation of the flight of buzzards leads me to believe they regain their lateral balance...
我对秃鹰飞行的观察使我相信它们恢复了横向平衡......
Wilbur Wright was nobody, and Chanute was a highly-respected figure, not just in the aeronautical community in the United States but in Europe as well.
威尔伯·赖特 (Wilbur Wright) 默默无闻，而查努特 (Chanute) 则是一位备受尊敬的人物，不仅在美国航空界，而且在欧洲也是如此。
He knew everyone who was engaged in aeronautical experimentation.
他认识所有从事航空实验的人。
As Wilbur had hoped, Chanute promptly wrote back.
正如威尔伯所希望的那样，查努特立即回信。
He did recognize that Wilbur and Orville were clearly well ahead of everyone else when he got that first letter in 1900.
当他在 1900 年收到第一封信时，他确实认识到威尔伯和奥维尔显然远远领先于其他人。
Chanute had supported a lot of other experimenters, and was familiar with virtually anybody of significance in the field, and quickly recognized that these two fellows were_ were something special.
查努特支持过许多其他实验者，并且几乎熟悉该领域的任何重要人物，并且很快意识到这两个家伙是很特别的。
The road to building a practical airplane started in a place so desolate that Orville said trying to find Wilbur was like searching for a lost Arctic explorer.
建造一架实用飞机的道路始于一个如此荒凉的地方，奥维尔说，寻找威尔伯就像寻找迷失的北极探险家一样。
The brothers chose Kitty Hawk on the advice of the U.S. Weather Bureau, because of its steady winds for gliding and sandy slopes for landing.
兄弟俩根据美国气象局的建议选择了小鹰号，因为这里有稳定的风可供滑翔，沙坡适合着陆。
Kitty Hawk in 1900 was the edge of the earth, it truly was.
1900 年的小鹰号确实是地球的边缘。
It was_ it was isolated and barren, and the people had a very hard and rugged life.
那是——地处偏僻、贫瘠，人民的生活十分艰苦。
They made their living either from the sea or they made it from commercial hunting, and both of those were very dangerous occupations.
他们要么靠海上谋生，要么靠商业狩猎为生，这两种职业都是非常危险的。
So it was a_ it was a hard place for the people, and they were fascinated with_ with the Wright brothers.
所以，对于人们来说，这是一个艰难的地方，他们对莱特兄弟很着迷。
Wilbur had been staying in the home of the local postmaster.
威尔伯一直住在当地邮政局长的家里。
Now, armed with the tent and provisions Orville had brought from Dayton, the brothers set up camp in the middle of a sand dune and began testing their glider.
现在，带着奥维尔从代顿带来的帐篷和给养，兄弟俩在沙丘中央扎营，开始测试他们的滑翔机。
It had two revolutionary control features-- the wing-warping mechanism to raise or lower the rear edge of the wing, and a forward elevator to pitch the nose up or down.
它具有两个革命性的控制功能——用于升高或降低机翼后缘的机翼翘曲机构，以及用于向上或向下倾斜机头的前升降舵。
Wilbur and Orville hoped to spend many hours in the air, but the glider could barely lift a man off the ground.
威尔伯和奥维尔希望在空中度过很长时间，但滑翔机几乎无法将人升离地面。
For most of that fall, the brothers flew it as a kite, and were relieved that their control mechanisms seemed to work.
那年秋天的大部分时间里，兄弟俩都把它当风筝放，他们的控制机制似乎起作用了，这让他们松了一口气。
The following year, 1901, Wilbur and Orville designed a new glider with much bigger wings, which, according to their calculations, would solve the lift problem, but that was the year when everything went wrong.
第二年，即 1901 年，威尔伯和奥维尔设计了一种新型滑翔机，机翼更大，根据他们的计算，这将解决升力问题，但那一年一切都出了问题。
It began with the weather-- torrential rains followed by a plague of mosquitoes.
首先是天气——暴雨过后，蚊子肆虐。
When the wind stopped, the mosquitoes came out, and the mosquitoes in there are voracious.
风停了，蚊子就出来了，而且里面的蚊子很贪吃。
They're_ they're huge and they're many, and they would come, and he said they would darken the sky, they were literally that thick.
它们很大，数量很多，它们会来，他说它们会让天空变暗，它们确实有那么厚。
There was no escape.
无处可逃。
The sand and grass and trees and hills and everything were covered with them.
沙子、草地、树木、山丘以及一切都被它们覆盖了。
They chewed us right through our underwear and socks.
他们咬穿我们的内衣和袜子。
Lumps began swelling all over my body like hen's eggs.
我全身的肿块开始像鸡蛋一样肿胀。
The glider's larger wings did generate more lift than before, enough to carry Wilbur on short hops down the dunes, but still nowhere near what they had predicted, and now that they were gliding more, they discovered a major flaw in the control system.
滑翔机更大的机翼确实比以前产生了更多的升力，足以让威尔伯在沙丘上短距离跳跃，但仍然远未达到他们的预测，现在他们滑翔得更多，他们发现了控制系统的一个重大缺陷。
He attempted to make a turn.
他试图转弯。
When that happened, he started slipping sideways.
当这种情况发生时，他开始向侧面滑动。
When he started moving sideways, he may have panicked-- I know I would have in a similar situation-- but he overcompensated, and rather than increasing his control, he lost complete control of the glider.
当他开始侧向移动时，他可能会惊慌失措——我知道我在类似的情况下也会有这种情况——但他补偿过度，他不但没有增强控制力，反而完全失去了对滑翔机的控制。
He slammed into the earth, just straight down, the same way Otto Lillienthal had been killed, straight into the earth.
他猛地撞向地面，径直向下，就像奥托·李林塔尔被杀一样，径直撞向地面。
He lost his grip, slid forward, and hit his forehead against the back of a strut and split his forehead open.
他失去了控制，向前滑倒，额头撞到了一根支柱的背面，把他的额头裂开了。
At this point, Wilbur admitted believing that men would not fly for fifty more years, and the brothers went back to Dayton early.
此时，威尔伯承认相信人类在五十年内不会飞行，兄弟俩提前回到了代顿。
Katharine was delighted to see them, but remarked in a letter to her father, ''The boys walked in unexpectedly on Thursday.
凯瑟琳很高兴见到他们，但在给父亲的一封信中说道：“周四，孩子们意外地走进来。
They haven't had much to say about flying.'' Soon after their return, Wilbur was invited by Octave Chanute to address the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago.
他们对飞行没有太多话可说。”回国后不久，威尔伯就受到奥克塔夫·查努特的邀请，在芝加哥的西方工程师学会发表演讲。
Preparing the speech was just the shot in the arm the brothers needed.
准备演讲正是兄弟俩所需要的一针强心剂。
It gave them a chance to review their work.
这给了他们一个回顾自己工作的机会。
Wilbur told Chanute what he and Orville had long suspected-- that Otto Lillienthal's data that they had been using to design wings was flawed.
威尔伯告诉沙努特他和奥维尔长期以来的怀疑——他们用来设计机翼的奥托·李林塔尔的数据有缺陷。
Even Chanute, perhaps, thought, at the time, that it was perhaps a bit bold for two bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio to question the lift tables that had been produced by the great Lillienthal and published by the great Chanute, not to put too fine a point on it.
甚至查努特当时也认为，对于来自俄亥俄州代顿市的两家自行车制造商来说，质疑伟大的李林塔尔生产并由伟大的查努特出版的升降台可能有点大胆，而不是对此提出太细化的观点。
The brothers certainly didn't feel that way.
兄弟俩当然不这么认为。
Back in the bike shop, Orville built a wind tunnel to test wing shapes to see which one produced the greatest lift.
回到自行车店，奥维尔建造了一个风洞来测试机翼形状，看看哪一种能产生最大的升力。
Lift is_ in order for a plane to fly, you have to get more pressure on the bottom of the wing than you get on the top of the wing-- that's what holds it up in the air-- and so, obviously, this gets into the question of_ it's very important as to how your wing is shaped and at what angle you present it to the air, and so on.
升力是_为了让飞机飞行，你必须在机翼底部承受比机翼顶部更大的压力——这就是将飞机保持在空中的原因——所以，显然，这涉及到一个问题——机翼的形状以及以什么角度将其呈现在空中，等等，这非常重要。
And these are the things, then, they were_ that they were learning from their wind tunnel experiments.
那么，这些就是他们从风洞实验中学到的东西。
And, you see, it was Orville's idea, and this is_ was a_ what a great leap of imagination this is, that a wing doesn't have to be full-size to find out whether it works.
而且，你看，这是奥维尔的想法，这是一个多么大的想象力飞跃，机翼不必是全尺寸的才能知道它是否有效。
We don't have to jump off a hill and risk our lives.
我们不必冒着生命危险跳下山。
A tiny metal wing, in proportion, will act like a one-hundred-foot wing.
一个微小的金属机翼，按比例来说，就像一个一百英尺的机翼。
It doesn't matter.
没关系。
Inside the wind tunnel, the brothers placed ingenious test instruments which measured the performance of the different wing shapes.
在风洞内，兄弟俩放置了巧妙的测试仪器来测量不同机翼形状的性能。
Wilbur and Orville methodically recorded the results, and produced reliable aerodynamic data.
威尔伯和奥维尔有条不紊地记录了结果，并产生了可靠的空气动力学数据。
The Wright brothers are literally models of sort of the engineering method.
莱特兄弟实际上是某种工程方法的典范。
Things have to mesh as you move forward.
当你前进时，事情必须相互配合。
There's a lot of feedback.
有很多反馈。
You never leave anything unsolved behind you.
你永远不会留下任何未解决的事情。
They weren't college graduate engineers, but at the same time, they were two of the best engineers working in the world at the time.
他们不是大学毕业的工程师，但同时，他们是当时世界上最优秀的两位工程师。
Along with their ongoing work in the bicycle shop, the brothers feverishly began designing a new glider.
在继续在自行车店工作的同时，兄弟俩狂热地开始设计一款新的滑翔机。
The Flying Machine is in process now.
飞行器现在正在制作中。
Will spins the sewing machine around by the hour while Orv squats around, marking the places to sew.
威尔按小时转动缝纫机，而奥夫则蹲在周围，标记要缝纫的地方。
There is no place in the house to live, but I'll be lonesome enough by this time next week.
房子里没有地方住，但下周这个时候我已经够孤独的了。
In August 1902, the Wright brothers made their third trip to Kitty Hawk.
1902 年 8 月，莱特兄弟第三次前往基蒂霍克。
Wilbur wrote, ''We fitted up our living arrangements much more comfortably than last year.
威尔伯写道：“我们的生活安排比去年舒适得多。
Our kitchen is immensely improved, and then we have made beds on the second floor and now sleep aloft.
我们的厨房已经大大改善了，然后我们在二楼铺了床，现在睡在高处。
The main thing, though, is our new machine.'' Their wind-tunnel experiments had finally paid off, but the puzzle was not yet completely solved.
不过，最重要的是我们的新机器。”他们的风洞实验终于取得了成果，但难题尚未完全解决。
Every so often, the glider would still slip sideways during a turn and spin out of control.
有时，滑翔机在转弯时仍然会侧滑并失去控制。
The fixed tail rudder they had added to their new machine didn't help.
他们在新机器上添加的固定尾舵没有帮助。
It was time for the Wright brothers' unique approach to problem-solving.
是时候采用莱特兄弟独特的方法来解决问题了。
They argued, they fought.
他们争论，他们战斗。
One brother would take one point, and one brother would take the other, and then sometimes they would switch sides, and they'd scream and shout just as hard in the other direction.
一个兄弟会拿一分，一个兄弟会拿另一分，然后有时他们会换边，他们会向另一个方向尖叫和喊叫。
Can you imagine walking by, and these men are unusual, anyway-- they're small, they're_ they're ''Yankees,'' to use the local term-- and to walk by and hear these two men dressed in coats and ties inside this shack, screaming at each other about things that make absolutely no sense to anyone, at least not to the local people.
你能想象一下，当你走过这些人的时候，无论如何，他们都很不寻常——他们很小，他们是“洋基队”，用当地的术语来说——走过的时候，听到这两个穿着外套、系着领带的男人在这个小屋里，互相尖叫着一些对任何人来说都毫无意义的事情，至少对当地人来说是没有意义的。
Well, they could argue right to the bitter end, being sure that the other person wasn't terminally angry with them or something of that sort.
好吧，他们可以争论到最后，并确保对方没有对他们感到极度愤怒或类似的事情。
It enabled them to really toss ideas back and forth, and really function as an intellectual team.
这使他们能够真正地反复思考想法，并真正发挥知识团队的作用。
Together the brothers solved the final piece of the puzzle.
兄弟俩共同解决了最后一块难题。
They hinged the tail rudder and linked it to the wing-warping mechanism.
他们用铰链连接尾舵并将其与机翼扭曲机构连接起来。
Now, for the first time in history, man could glide through the air with control.
现在，人类历史上第一次可以在空中控制地滑翔。
It's a beautiful picture.
这是一幅美丽的图画。
Orville took it from the top of the West Hill, looking toward Kill Devil Hill.
奥维尔从西山顶上接过它，望向杀魔山。
Will launched, he flew straight away to gain altitude and speed away from the hill, and he turned.
威尔起飞，他径直飞去，以获得远离山丘的高度和速度，然后他转身。
And he said he knew at that instant, ''We have done it.''
他说他在那一刻就知道，“我们已经做到了。”
The brothers made nearly one thousand glides that year, twice flying over six hundred feet.
那一年，兄弟俩进行了近千次滑翔，其中两次飞越六百英尺。
The challenge now would be to turn their glider into an airplane.
现在的挑战是将他们的滑翔机变成飞机。
And so they needed two things.
所以他们需要两件事。
They needed power, and they needed a method of propulsion, so that meant an engine and propellers.
他们需要动力，需要一种推进方法，这意味着发动机和螺旋桨。
If I could be anywhere in the world at any time, I wouldn't be on the field at Kitty Hawk.
如果我可以随时随地在世界任何地方，我就不会出现在小鹰队的球场上。
I'd be in the bicycle shop in the summer of 1903.
1903 年夏天，我在自行车店里。
The place was a madhouse.
这个地方是一个疯人院。
They were building and selling bikes at the peak of the season, the door is swinging all day long.
他们在旺季生产和销售自行车，门整天都在晃动。
They're building the airplane inside-- there are pieces of it everywhere in the bicycle shop.
他们正在里面建造飞机——自行车店里到处都是飞机的碎片。
All this is going on.
这一切都在发生。
In_ in the midst of that insanity, they're building an engine.
在这种疯狂之中，他们正在制造一台发动机。
Knowing little about engine design, Wilbur and Orville turn to Charlie Taylor, a machinist who worked in their shop.
威尔伯和奥维尔对发动机设计知之甚少，于是向在他们车间工作的机械师查理·泰勒求助。
And he had one of the brothers sketch on the crankshaft with a pencil, and then he cut the crankshaft out with a drill press, a chisel and a hammer, so it's a very, very crude device, but he said it balanced perfectly.
他让其中一个兄弟用铅笔在曲轴上画了草图，然后他用钻床、凿子和锤子把曲轴切出来，所以这是一个非常非常粗糙的装置，但他说它平衡得很好。
The Wright brothers made another astonishing breakthrough.
莱特兄弟又取得了惊人的突破。
They realized that a propeller worked like a rotating wing, generating thrust to move the aircraft forward.
他们意识到螺旋桨的工作原理就像旋转的机翼，产生推力使飞机向前移动。
One of the core aspects of their ability was a great facility to literally visualize-- literally see in their mind's eye-- a mechanical device, move components of it around or transfer mechanical devices from one technology to the airplane and make them work.
他们能力的核心方面之一是拥有一个强大的设施，可以真正可视化（实际上是在他们的脑海中看到）机械设备，移动其组件或将机械设备从一种技术转移到飞机上并使它们工作。
While Wilbur and Orville worked on the final stages of their airplane, Octave Chanute embarked on a speaking tour of his native France.
当威尔伯和奥维尔在飞机的最后阶段工作时，奥克塔夫·沙努特开始了他的祖国法国的巡回演讲。
At this point, their friend published enough information about their glider in a French journal to inspire the rebirth of French aviation.
此时，他们的朋友在法国杂志上发表了有关他们的滑翔机的足够信息，激发了法国航空的重生。
The balloon had been invented in France, and the French, I think, had always generally assumed that they would invent the airplane.
气球是法国发明的，我认为法国人一直普遍认为他们会发明飞机。
Suddenly, they were forced to realize that there were these two guys on the other side of the Atlantic-- bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, for heaven's sakes-- who had moved well beyond anybody else in the world.
突然，他们被迫意识到大西洋彼岸有这两个家伙——天啊，来自俄亥俄州代顿的自行车制造商——他们的进步远远超过了世界上任何其他人。
The race to fly the first airplane looked as though it might be won by Samuel Langley.
驾驶第一架飞机的竞赛看起来塞缪尔·兰利可能会获胜。
He had been given fifty thousand dollars by the Army to build a full-scale powered machine capable of carrying a passenger.
陆军给了他五万美元来建造一台能够运载乘客的全尺寸动力机器。
Early in December 1903, he was ready.
1903 年 12 月早些时候，他就做好了准备。
But the airplane was completely devoid of any kind of structural integrity.
但这架飞机完全没有任何结构完整性。
The aerodynamics were_ were poor.
空气动力学很差。
It had absolutely no means of control.
它完全没有任何控制手段。
The only thing really good about it was the engine.
它唯一真正好的地方是引擎。
Langley's Aerodrome was launched at sixty miles per hour from the roof of a houseboat, and collapsed immediately into the Potomac River with its so-called ''pilot'' aboard.
兰利机场以每小时 60 英里的速度从一艘船顶发射，并立即与船上所谓的“飞行员”一起倒塌到波托马克河中。
It fell, according to one observer, ''like a handful of mortar.'' Wilbur wrote to Chanute from Kitty Hawk_ ''I see that Langley has had his fling and failed.
据一位观察家称，它“像一把迫击炮一样落下”。威尔伯在基蒂霍克给查努特的信中写道，“我看到兰利的风流韵事已经失败了。”
It seems to be our turn now, and I wonder what our luck will be.'' On December 17th, the Wright brothers were ready with their new machine, now outfitted with a lightweight engine and two propellers.
现在似乎轮到我们了，我不知道我们的运气会如何。”12 月 17 日，莱特兄弟准备好了他们的新机器，现在配备了轻型发动机和两个螺旋桨。
The day dawned cold and clear.
天刚亮，天气寒冷而晴朗。
Wilbur and Orville rose early and dressed in their customary business suits.
威尔伯和奥维尔很早就起床，穿着他们习惯的西装。
The wind's blowing straight off the ocean, about thirty miles an hour, wind chill four degrees.
风从海上直吹，每小时大约三十英里，风寒四度。
They cook breakfast and they straighten up, and they're waiting for the wind to break.
他们煮了早餐，然后直起身子，等待风停。
Well, they hung out the signal flag on the side of the shed so that_ that the members of the U.S. Lifesaving Service crew would know to come up the beach and give them a hand, because, you know, maneuvering the airplane out of the shed takes some assistance.
好吧，他们在棚屋的一侧挂起了信号旗，以便美国救生服务队的工作人员知道到海滩上来帮助他们，因为，你知道，将飞机从棚屋中操纵出来需要一些帮助。
One of the local men said when the brothers shook hands, it looked like two men that were never going to see each other again.
一位当地人说，当兄弟俩握手时，看起来就像是两个永远不会再见面的人。
Orville took his place at [the] controls, and Wilbur held the wing tip.
奥维尔负责控制，威尔伯负责控制翼尖。
They had taken John Daniels aside beforehand, and they said, ''We need a picture of this.'' They'd been taking pictures of everything.
他们事先把约翰·丹尼尔斯叫到一边，说：“我们需要一张照片。”他们一直在给一切拍照。
And they were ready to go, and Orville flipped the gadget on the bottom of the leading edge of the wing that released the machine.
他们准备出发了，奥维尔翻转了机翼前缘底部的装置，释放了机器。
The machine began to crawl forward.
机器开始向前爬行。
Finally, after about forty-five feet, it lifted into the air.
最后，大约四十五英尺后，它升到了空中。
A hundred and twenty feet, twelve seconds later, it touched the earth.
一百二十英尺，十二秒后，它触及了地面。
Humanity had flown.
人类已经飞翔。
When they approached John Daniels about the picture_ he got so excited when he saw the machine lift into the air that he forgot to do anything.
当他们向约翰丹尼尔斯询问这张照片时，当他看到机器升到空中时，他非常兴奋，以至于忘记了做任何事情。
He didn't think he'd squeezed the bulb.
他不认为自己挤压了灯泡。
This is it.
就是这样。
This is the moment, and you can see Wilbur.
这一刻，你可以看到威尔伯了。
He's caught in mid-stride.
他被困在了中间。
You can see Orville on the machine.
你可以在机器上看到奥维尔。
It's just all_ all right there.
一切都很好。
it's that moment frozen forever.
那一刻永远定格了。
The brothers made three more flights that day, the longest covering eight hundred and fifty-two feet.
那天，兄弟俩又进行了三次飞行，最长的一次飞行了八百五十二英尺。
Success.
成功。
Four flights Thursday morning.
周四早上有四趟航班。
Longest fifty-seven seconds.
最长五十七秒。
Inform press.
通知媒体。
Home Christmas.
回家过圣诞节。
The telegram was sent to my grandfather.
电报是发给我祖父的。
He came down the stairs, and he said, ''The boys have flown.'' Well, I could hardly believe it.
他走下楼梯，说道：“孩子们飞走了。”好吧，我简直不敢相信。
I could hardly believe it.
我简直不敢相信。
Wilbur and Orville hurried home for Christmas.
威尔伯和奥维尔匆匆回家过圣诞节。
I was in the second grade, and I was thinking of Christmas.
我当时上二年级，我正在考虑圣诞节。
Wilbur took care of the turkey.
威尔伯照顾火鸡。
He loved to make the_ the dressing-- he made a thing of it-- and he would say, ''Ah, 'tis a fine bird.''
他喜欢做调料——他把它当作一件事——他会说，“啊，这是一只好鸟。”
No longer dependent on wind and sand, the brothers moved their operation to Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture outside of Dayton.
兄弟俩不再依赖风和沙，将他们的业务搬到了代顿郊外的一个奶牛牧场霍夫曼草原。
For an airplane to be practical, they knew it had to go farther than eight hundred and fifty-two feet.
他们知道飞机要实用，飞行高度必须超过八百五十二英尺。
Soon after their return, the Wright brothers invited more than a hundred reporters out for a demonstration.
回国后不久，莱特兄弟就邀请了一百多名记者出来示威。
The weather was really bad-- it was raining.
天气真的很糟糕——下雨了。
Again, the wind was really light.
再次，风真的很小。
They ran back and forth along track without getting off the ground-- they finally did kind of bounce into the air-- and the reporters saw this and kind of shook their heads and said, ''Ah-ha,'' and they all turned around and walked away, convinced that Wilbur and Orville Wright weren't in fact flying.
他们沿着轨道来回奔跑，没有离开地面——他们最终弹到了空中——记者们看到了这一点，有点摇头说，“啊哈”，然后他们都转身走开，确信威尔伯和奥维尔·赖特实际上并没有在飞行。
Left alone, the brothers built two more planes in over the next two years, making major improvements.
兄弟俩在接下来的两年里又制造了两架飞机，并进行了重大改进。
Using a catapult to launch their flyer in the light winds over Huffman Prairie, they were flying figure eights by the summer of 1905, and making flights as long as thirty minutes.
到 1905 年夏天，他们使用弹射器在霍夫曼草原上空的微风中发射飞行器，以 8 字形飞行，飞行时间长达 30 分钟。
Eventually, a few local reporters began to take notice.
最终，一些当地记者开始注意到这一点。
Wilbur wrote Chanute.
威尔伯写了《夏努特》。
Intelligence of what we are doing is gradually spreading through the neighborhood, and we are fearful that we will soon have to discontinue experiments.
关于我们正在做的事情的情报正在逐渐在附近传播，我们担心我们很快就不得不停止实验。
In fact, it is a question what we will do with our baby now that we have it.
事实上，现在问题是我们有了孩子后我们将如何对待它。
Imagine yourself as the Wrights in 1905.
想象一下自己是 1905 年的莱特兄弟。
You've got this incredible, miraculous, uncanny invention, but what do you do with it, how do you sell it?
你已经有了这个令人难以置信、奇迹般、不可思议的发明，但是你用它做什么，如何出售它？
It can't be sold as a transportation tool, a way to commute, because it requires a special launching apparatus to leave the ground.
它不能作为运输工具、通勤方式出售，因为它需要特殊的发射装置才能离开地面。
It can't carry more than one other person, and that person can't weigh too much.
它只能承载一个人，而且这个人的重量也不能太重。
So it's very constrained by its potential.
所以它的潜力非常有限。
The logical step for the Wright brothers was to go to the U.S. War Department, which had backed Langley's experiments, but they didn't have their patent yet and were afraid that if they flew publicly, someone would steal their invention.
对莱特兄弟来说，合乎逻辑的一步是去美国陆军部，该部支持兰利的实验，但他们还没有专利，担心如果公开飞行，有人会窃取他们的发明。
So Wilbur and Orville decided to stop flying and try to market their machine without actually showing it to anyone.
因此，威尔伯和奥维尔决定停止飞行，并尝试推销他们的机器，而不向任何人展示。
Being good Americans, the brothers began with a letter to their congressman.
作为善良的美国人，兄弟俩首先写了一封给国会议员的信。
We have a flying machine of a type fit for practical use.
我们拥有适合实际使用的飞行器。
It not only flies through the air at high speed, but it also lands without being wrecked.
它不仅在空中高速飞行，而且落地时也不会失事。
What they said to people, essentially, was, ''Look, you don't have to pay a single red cent.
他们对人们说的基本上是，“看，你不需要支付一分钱。”
Once the contract is signed, you'll establish certain specifications that you want our machine to meet.
合同签订后，您将确定您希望我们的机器满足的某些规格。
We'll go out and conduct a demonstration.
我们将出去示威。
We'll prove to you we can do all the things you insist on, and only when all of that's done will you have to pay us for our invention.
我们将向您证明，我们可以做您坚持要求的所有事情，只有当所有这些都完成后，您才需要为我们的发明付费。
When the Wrights' proposal was rejected with a form letter from the War Department, they were dumbfounded.
当莱特兄弟的提议被陆军部的套用信函拒绝时，他们惊呆了。
They took the world in a very literal sort of way, and they said_ they felt that if they had said that they had solved the problem and they had an aircraft that could do what they said it could, that people should believe them.
他们以一种非常字面的方式看待世界，他们说，他们觉得，如果他们说他们已经解决了问题，并且他们拥有一架可以做到他们所说的事情的飞机，那么人们就应该相信他们。
Insulted by their own government's response, the brothers turned to Europe.
兄弟俩因本国政府的反应而感到羞辱，于是转向欧洲。
In Europe the international situation was extremely tense-- Germany and France were on the verge of war-- and they had every reason to believe that the French or the Germans or possibly the English would be interested in buying their invention.
在欧洲，国际局势极其紧张——德国和法国正处于战争边缘——他们有充分的理由相信法国人、德国人或者可能英国人会有兴趣购买他们的发明。
Wilbur and Orville were asking for two hundred thousand dollars for their airplane.
威尔伯和奥维尔要价二十万美元购买他们的飞机。
European government officials were reluctant to pay so much for a machine they couldn't see, especially when their own aviators were finally getting off the ground.
欧洲政府官员不愿意为他们看不到的机器支付如此高的价格，尤其是当他们自己的飞行员终于起飞时。
In 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont, debonair aristocrat and celebrated balloonist, made the first powered flight in Europe before a crowd of Parisians.
1906 年，温文尔雅的贵族和著名热气球飞行家阿尔贝托·桑托斯·杜蒙 (Alberto Santos-Dumont) 在一群巴黎人面前进行了欧洲首次动力飞行。
When the plane left the ground, people just gasped.
当飞机离开地面时，人们只是倒吸一口冷气。
It was ''a moment of miracle,'' as one journalist put it.
正如一位记者所说，这是“奇迹的时刻”。
On the other hand, the Dumont plane was nothing like the Wright brothers plane.
另一方面，杜蒙飞机与莱特兄弟的飞机完全不同。
It could fly in a straight line and had very minimal control.
它可以直线飞行，并且控制力非常小。
It was a very hazardous machine.
这是一台非常危险的机器。
Though it was an uncontrolled hop of only two hundred feet, Santos-Dumont was proclaimed the father of aviation.
尽管这是一次仅两百英尺的不受控制的跳跃，但桑托斯·杜蒙仍被誉为航空之父。
Still refusing to show their airplane, Wilbur and Orville were about to lose all credit for their achievement.
威尔伯和奥维尔仍然拒绝展示他们的飞机，他们的成就即将失去所有荣誉。
Chanute urged them to reconsider their sales strategy, but the brothers would not budge, even after they got their patent in 1906.
查努特敦促他们重新考虑销售策略，但兄弟俩不肯让步，即使他们在 1906 年获得了专利。
Doubts about the Wright brothers' credibility turned to scorn.
对莱特兄弟可信度的怀疑变成了蔑视。
One French newspaper put it, ''It is difficult to fly.
一份法国报纸称，“飞行很难。”
It is easy for the Wrights to say, 'We have flown.' They are either flyers or liars.''
莱特兄弟很容易说：“我们已经飞走了。”他们要么是传单，要么是骗子。”
In 1907, Wilbur traveled to Europe to try to move the negotiations along.
1907 年，威尔伯前往欧洲试图推动谈判。
For a young man from Dayton, Ohio, Paris was a revelation.
对于来自俄亥俄州代顿的年轻人来说，巴黎是一个启示。
It is a curious custom here to have little tables at which crowds of people sit and sip wine and eat light lunches in the open air.
这里有一种奇怪的风俗，就是摆出小桌子，一大群人坐在桌边，在露天喝着酒，吃着清淡的午餐。
This afternoon I spent a couple of hours in the Louvre.
今天下午我在卢浮宫待了几个小时。
I liked Leonardo da Vinci's ''John the Baptist'' much better than his ''Mona Lisa.'' Seems incredible that the Louvre was erected merely for a king's pleasure.
我更喜欢列奥纳多·达·芬奇的《施洗者约翰》，而不是他的《蒙娜丽莎》。卢浮宫仅仅是为了国王的享乐而建立的，这似乎令人难以置信。
The Wrights had hired an international sales agency, and its representative, Hart Berg, showed Wilbur around Paris and came to have a lot of respect for him.
莱特兄弟聘请了一家国际销售机构，其代表哈特·伯格带威尔伯参观了巴黎，并对他产生了极大的尊重。
When I first came over, Berg thought that he was the businessman and I was merely a sort of exhibit.
当我刚来的时候，伯格认为他是商人，而我只是一个展览品。
Now he realizes that I see into situations deeper than they do, that my judgment is more often sound.
现在他意识到我对情况的了解比他们更深入，我的判断往往更正确。
Orville joined Wilbur in Paris several weeks later.
几周后，奥维尔在巴黎与威尔伯会合。
As usual, their father, the bishop, was keeping a close watch.
像往常一样，他们的父亲，主教，一直在密切关注。
Be men of the highest types personally, mentally, morally and spiritually.
成为个人、心智、道德和精神上最高类型的人。
Be clean, temperate, sober minded, and great souled.
保持清洁、节制、清醒的头脑和伟大的灵魂。
All the wine I have tasted since leaving home would not fill a single wineglass.
离开家以来我尝过的所有酒都装不满一个酒杯。
I am sure that Orville and myself will do nothing which will disgrace the training we received from you and Mother.
我确信奥维尔和我自己不会做任何有损我们从您和母亲那里接受的训练的事情。
Despite their efforts, negotiations with the French government floundered, and the brothers returned home empty-handed.
尽管付出了努力，与法国政府的谈判还是陷入困境，兄弟俩空手而归。
Meanwhile, French aviators continued to make news.
与此同时，法国飞行员继续制造新闻。
In January 1908, a young pilot named Henri Farman flew a kilometer in a closed circle.
1908 年 1 月，一位名叫亨利·法曼 (Henri Farman) 的年轻飞行员在封闭圆圈中飞行了一公里。
He had only marginal control and basically skidded through his turns, but he was turning.
他的控制能力有限，转弯时基本上会打滑，但他正在转弯。
Now the French were more convinced than ever-- they had conquered the air.
现在法国人比以往任何时候都更加确信——他们已经征服了天空。
It must have been really frustrating for the Wrights.
对于莱特兄弟来说，这一定是非常令人沮丧的。
They had invented a real flying machine.
他们发明了一种真正的飞行器。
They had solved all the thorny technical problems.
他们解决了所有棘手的技术问题。
They had done serious empirical and scientific research, built their machine, flown it, and yet the headlines were just filled with praise for these Europeans.
他们进行了认真的实证和科学研究，制造了他们的机器并进行了飞行，但头条新闻却充满了对这些欧洲人的赞扬。
Finally, after three years of negotiations, the Wrights' claims reached President Theodore Roosevelt.
最终，经过三年的谈判，莱特兄弟的主张到达了西奥多·罗斯福总统。
Early in 1908, a deal was made with the U.S. Army Signal Corps for twenty-five thousand dollars.
1908 年初，与美国陆军通信兵团达成了一项价值 2.5 万美元的交易。
Another deal with a French syndicate soon followed.
不久之后，又与一家法国财团达成了另一笔交易。
Having built a second flyer, the brothers set out to prove that their machines could fly.
建造了第二架飞行器后，兄弟俩开始证明他们的机器可以飞行。
Wilbur left for France, while Orville prepared for demonstrations in Washington.
威尔伯前往法国，而奥维尔则准备在华盛顿举行示威活动。
It was the first time in a long time that they'd been separated on an important occasion, and they did feel the strain.
这是他们很长一段时间以来第一次在重要场合分开，他们确实感受到了压力。
And the strains were real.
压力是真实存在的。
I mean, Wilbur was under a lot of pressure.
我的意思是，威尔伯承受着很大的压力。
You can scarcely imagine what a strain it is on one to have no one to understand what you say, and no one capable of doing the grade of work we've always insisted upon.
你几乎无法想象，如果没有人理解你所说的话，也没有人能够完成我们一直坚持要求的工作，这对一个人来说是一种多大的压力。
It compels me to do almost everything myself, and keeps me worried.
它迫使我几乎所有事情都自己做，这让我很担心。
Wilbur Wright was not a man who would allow himself to be rushed.
威尔伯·赖特（Wilbur Wright）不是一个会允许自己仓促行事的人。
He had painstakingly assembled the flyer.
他煞费苦心地组装了传单。
He took it to a small racetrack outside of the French town of Le Mans.
他把它带到了法国勒芒小镇外的一个小赛道上。
A crowd had assembled on August 8, 1908.
1908 年 8 月 8 日，一群人聚集在一起。
They waited and they waited and they waited in their starchy clothes.
他们穿着浆糊的衣服等啊等啊。
And finally, Wilbur Wright appeared, dressed appropriately in a business suit and a strange hat, green hat.
最后，威尔伯·赖特出现了，他穿着得体的西装，戴着一顶奇怪的帽子，绿帽子。
He sat down in the flyer, whistling a tune that nobody could identify between his_ his teeth and his tightly-pursed lips.
他坐在传单上，吹着口哨，从他的牙齿和紧闭的嘴唇之间，没人能辨认出那首曲子。
And he suddenly said, ''Gentlemen, I am going to fly.'' A weight was dropped, and the Wright flyer left the ground.
他突然说：“先生们，我要飞了。”一个重物落下，莱特飞行器离开了地面。
At that moment, the sixty-some-odd spectators rose to their feet in a spontaneous acclamation.
这一刻，六十多名观众自发起立鼓掌。
Wilbur's version of the day's events was slightly more understated.
威尔伯对当天事件的描述稍微低调一些。
''I thought it would be good to do a little something,'' he wrote to Orville.
“我认为做一点事情会很好，”他写信给奥维尔。
There was not one person who was present at that flight on the 8th of August of 1908 who did not realize that the Wright brothers had done everything that they said they had done, and that they were now far beyond the French.
1908 年 8 月 8 日，在场的所有人都意识到，莱特兄弟已经做到了他们所说的一切，而且他们现在远远超出了法国人。
And, in fact, one of them said at that time and was quoted in the papers widely, ''We are beaten.''
事实上，他们中的一个人当时说过：“我们被打败了。”这一说法被报纸广泛引用。
Overnight, Wilbur became a sensation in France.
一夜之间，威尔伯轰动了法国。
I am in receipt of bouquets, baskets of fruit, flowers almost without number.
我收到的花束、水果篮、鲜花几乎数不胜数。
The furor has been so great I cannot even take a bath without having a hundred or two people peeking at me.
愤怒如此之大，我什至无法在没有一百或两个人偷看的情况下洗澡。
The 'Vilbur Reet' cap appeared in stores throughout Paris.
“Vilbur Reet” 帽子出现在巴黎各地的商店中。
One year after he was awed by the Louvre, it was reported that his frying pan would be put on display there.
在他被卢浮宫惊叹一年后，有报道称他的煎锅将在那里展出。
The French felt it necessary to somehow ''jazz up'' Wilbur's character_ for example, when they place him with a cigarette in his mouth next to a garish-looking woman, this a man who was seldom seen in the company of women other than his sister and who never smoked in his life.
法国人觉得有必要以某种方式让威尔伯的性格“活跃起来”——例如，当他们把他嘴里叼着烟放在一个外表花哨的女人旁边时，这个男人除了他的妹妹之外很少与女人在一起，而且一生中从不吸烟。
Wilbur wasn't the only brother caught in the limelight.
威尔伯并不是唯一一个受到关注的兄弟。
I haven't done a lick of work since I've been here.
自从我来到这里以来，我还没有做过任何工作。
I have to give my time to answering the ten thousand fool questions people ask about the machine.
我必须花时间回答人们提出的有关机器的一万个愚蠢问题。
In the next few weeks, at a Washington, D.C. Army base called Fort Myer, Orville broke record after record, flying higher and longer than Wilbur had flown, culminating in a spectacular flight of seventy minutes.
在接下来的几周里，在华盛顿特区迈尔堡的陆军基地，奥维尔打破了一个又一个纪录，飞得比威尔伯飞得更高、更长，最终以七十分钟的壮观飞行结束。
To meet the terms of their Army contract, Orville had to demonstrate that their plane could carry a passenger.
为了满足陆军合同的条款，奥维尔必须证明他们的飞机可以搭载乘客。
One day he took off with a young Signal Corps officer, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge.
有一天，他和一位年轻的通信兵军官托马斯·塞尔弗里奇中尉一起出发。
They were making a circuit of the field when Orville heard two loud thumps.
当奥维尔听到两声巨响时，他们正在操场上转了一圈。
He cut the motor and tried to land, but the plane went into a nosedive.
他关掉发动机并试图着陆，但飞机急转直下。
Selfridge murmured, ''Oh, oh,'' almost inaudibly.
塞尔弗里奇低声说道：“哦，哦，”几乎听不见。
The flyer crashed straight into the ground, pinning Orville and Selfridge beneath the wreckage.
飞行器直接坠入地面，将奥维尔和塞尔弗里奇压在残骸下面。
Orville was hospitalized with several broken ribs and a serious back injury.
奥维尔因多根肋骨骨折和背部严重受伤而住院。
Selfridge's skull had been fractured, and he died that evening, the first person ever to be killed in a powered airplane.
塞尔弗里奇的头骨骨折，当晚他就去世了，这是有史以来第一个在动力飞机上丧生的人。
I cannot help thinking over and over again if I had been there, it would not have happened.
我不禁一遍又一遍地想，如果我当时在场，这一切就不会发生。
The death of poor Selfridge was a greater shock to me than Orville's injuries, severe as they were.
可怜的塞尔弗里奇的死对我来说比奥维尔的伤更让我震惊，尽管奥维尔的伤很严重。
It took four months for Orville to recover.
奥维尔花了四个月的时间才康复。
When he was well enough, he sailed with Katharine across the Atlantic to join Wilbur in France.
当他康复后，他与凯瑟琳一起航行横跨大西洋，前往法国与威尔伯会合。
They traveled south to the town of Pau, where Wilbur flew before a steady procession of notables who came from all over Europe.
他们向南到达波城，威尔伯在来自欧洲各地的知名人士的稳定游行队伍前面飞行。
''Princes and millionaires are as thick as fleas,'' he said.
“王子和百万富翁就像跳蚤一样稠密，”他说。
People were struck, I think, by several things at once.
我认为，人们同时被几件事所震惊。
They were struck by the extent to which Wilbur and Orville Wright, and Katharine as well, were unpretentious, straight-forward, honest, down-to-earth Americans, as it were.
他们对威尔伯·赖特、奥维尔·赖特以及凯瑟琳都是朴实无华、直率、诚实、脚踏实地的美国人感到震惊。
At the same time, I think they were struck by their sophistication, too.
与此同时，我认为他们也被自己的复杂性所震惊。
Katharine seemed to enjoy all the attention, but her brothers couldn't wait to get home.
凯瑟琳似乎很享受所有的关注，但她的兄弟们却迫不及待地想回家。
Wilbur wrote:
威尔伯写道：
Almost every evening a crowd of two or three thousand people comes out to see if I will make a flight.
几乎每天晚上都会有两三千人出来看看我是否能起飞。
I sometimes get so angry at the continual annoyance of having the crowd about, but I cannot help feeling sorry for them when I do not go out.
有时我会因为人群不断的烦扰而感到非常生气，但当我不出去时，我会情不自禁地为他们感到难过。
If I can get through this season, I am done with demonstrations forever.
如果我能熬过这个赛季，我就永远不再做示威了。
In Berlin, they flew before the Kaiser.
在柏林，他们飞到了德皇面前。
In Rome, the Wright brothers were greeted as heroes by the royal family.
在罗马，莱特兄弟被皇室视为英雄。
Their father kept track of their activities from Dayton.
他们的父亲在代顿跟踪他们的活动。
Enjoy fame ere its decadence, for I have realized the emptiness of its trumpet blasts.
在它的颓废之前享受名声，因为我已经意识到它的号角吹响的空虚。
But it was out of the bishop's hands.
但这不在主教的掌控之中。
Milton Wright's two youngest sons were among the first great celebrities of the twentieth century.
米尔顿·赖特的两个最小的儿子是二十世纪最早的伟大名人之一。
On one of his last flights in Rome, Wilbur brought along a photographer who shot the first motion pictures from an airplane.
在威尔伯在罗马的最后一次飞行中，他带来了一位摄影师，他在飞机上拍摄了第一部电影。
Four months after this flight, a Frenchman flew across the English Channel in a plane with control features based on the Wrights' wing-warping design.
这次飞行四个月后，一名法国人驾驶一架飞机飞越英吉利海峡，该飞机的控制功能基于莱特机翼翘曲设计。
The age of flight had arrived, and newcomers on both sides of the Atlantic began taking to the air.
飞行时代已经到来，大西洋两岸的新来者开始飞上天空。
Back in Dayton, the brothers established the Wright Company in 1909 to manufacture airplanes.
回到代顿，兄弟于 1909 年成立了莱特公司，生产飞机。
Orville managed the business.
奥维尔负责管理生意。
Wilbur was consumed with protecting their patents, filing lawsuit after lawsuit, taking infringers to court.
威尔伯全神贯注于保护自己的专利，一次又一次提起诉讼，将侵权者告上法庭。
In 1912, on a trip to Boston, Wilbur became ill with typhoid.
1912 年，在前往波士顿的途中，威尔伯患上了伤寒。
He returned to Hawthorne Street and died three weeks later.
他回到霍桑街，三周后去世。
He was forty-five years old.
他四十五岁了。
The bishop wrote a tribute to his son.
主教为他的儿子写了一篇悼词。
An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadfastly, he lived and died.
他有着始终如一的智慧、冷静的脾气、高度的自力更生和高度的谦虚，他清楚地看到了正义，坚定地追求它，他生死攸关。
After Wilbur's death, Orville lost interest in the Wright Company, and in 1915 sold it along with their patents for one million dollars.
威尔伯去世后，奥维尔对莱特公司失去了兴趣，并于 1915 年以 100 万美元的价格将其连同专利一起出售。
He retired to Hawthorne Hill, the Dayton mansion he and Wilbur had started to build.
他退休后搬到霍桑山，这是他和威尔伯开始建造的代顿豪宅。
He lived with Milton and Katharine until his father died and his sister married at the age of fifty-two.
他与米尔顿和凯瑟琳住在一起，直到他的父亲去世，他的妹妹在五十二岁时结婚。
As the elder statesman of aviation, Orville would find it necessary to spend much of his time insuring that he and his brother received the credit they deserved.
作为航空界的元老政治家，奥维尔发现有必要花费大量时间来确保他和他的兄弟获得他们应得的荣誉。
They saw something they wanted to do, and they just did it.
他们看到了他们想做的事情，他们就这么做了。
And if they didn't know the answer, they found other means to get the answer.
如果他们不知道答案，他们就会寻找其他方法来获得答案。
The spirit of_ of not being afraid, of just going ahead and doing whatever had to be done is something that I_ I admire tremendously.
这种不畏惧、勇往直前、做任何必须做的事情的精神是我非常钦佩的。
One morning in January 1948, when he was seventy-six years old, Orville had a heart attack while fixing a doorbell at Hawthorne Hill.
1948 年 1 月的一个早晨，76 岁的奥维尔在霍桑山修理门铃时突发心脏病。
He died three days later, with his family around him.
三天后，他在家人的陪伴下去世了。
Despite being bicycle mechanics, Wrights had a sense of some of the scientific challenges that had to be first solved before moving to designing and building an airplane.
尽管赖特是自行车机械师，但他意识到在设计和制造飞机之前必须首先解决一些科学挑战。
The Wright brothers seemed like the most ordinary men in the world, but they were brilliant, self-taught inventors who made a formidable team.
莱特兄弟看似世界上最普通的人，但他们是才华横溢、自学成才的发明家，组成了一支强大的团队。